Ellsworth Storey (November 16, 1879 – May 28, 1960) was a Seattle architect. He is known for combining contemporary and historical architectural styles with local materials to create a regional architectural style that reflected the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest. Storey was inspired to become an architect after visiting the World's Columbian Exposition as a child. He attended architecture school at the University of Illinois at the same time as Walter Burley Griffin, where he was influenced by the new

Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in ...

of architecture and its main proponent, Frank Lloyd Wright. He moved to Seattle in 1903 to begin his career. His early projects, including the Hoo Hoo house, designed for the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, were designed in a mix of

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

and Tudor Revival styles, but also incorporated elements of pioneer architecture. Many of Storey's early residences, including the Henry C. Storey and Ellsworth Storey houses, which he built for himself and his parents, reflect his fondness for Swiss chalets. Storey's residential and commercial projects included private houses, the Sigma Nu fraternity house of the University of Washington, and several churches. His designs blended the Prairie Style with a wide variety of historical American and European architectural styles such as Georgian and

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

revival, English gothic, Mission style, and California bungalow. Between 1912 and 1915, Storey built a set of 12 rental cottages adjacent to Colman Park on Lake Washington Boulevard. The Ellsworth Storey Cottages, as they came to be known, were constructed with exposed frames, shingled roofs, and interior detailing made from local woods. The cottages also featured generous front porches that encouraged neighborly interactions, and modular designs that made the most of their modest size. The fresh, non-derivative forms of these cottages, and their imaginative use of local materials, influenced the Northwest Regional style developed by mid-century modernist architects such as

John Yeon John Yeon (October 29, 1910 – March 13, 1994) was an American architect in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-twentieth century. He is regarded as one of the early practitioners of the Northwest Regional style of Modernism. Largely self-taught, ...

and Pietro Belluschi. In 1934, Storey began work on facilities for

Moran State Park Moran State Park is a public recreation area on Orcas Island in Puget Sound's San Juan Islands in the state of Washington, United States. The state park encompasses over 5,000 acres of various terrain including forests, wetlands, bogs, hills, and ...

. His buildings incorporated Arts and Crafts motifs into the prevalent rustic style of the National Park Service. The project culminated in the construction of eight buildings, including a 12-story fire lookout tower on Mount Constitution. Storey continued to work with government agencies into the 1950s, including projects for the Federal Housing Authority and United States Navy's

Sand Point Naval Air Station Naval Station Puget Sound is a former United States Naval station located on Sand Point in Seattle, Washington. Today, the land is occupied by Magnuson Park. History After World War I, a movement was begun to build Naval Air Station Seattle a ...

. He retired completely from architecture in 1955. He died in 1960, in Ithaca, New York, and requested that his ashes be scattered over Puget Sound.

References

External links

HistoryLink.org: Ellsworth Storey

HistoryLink.org: Ellsworth Storey Cottages

Pacific Coast Architectural Database: Ellsworth Storey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Storey, Ellsworth Architects from Seattle 20th-century American architects 1879 births 1960 deaths